Wine Cellar - St Kevins Arcade

Wine Cellar - St Kevin’s Arcade
by The Auckland Psychogeographer

The unlikely hero of independent Auckland culture, the Wine Cellar is not only the most consistent home to intimate and interesting live music in the city, but is central to a community of musicians and bohemians.

Founded in 2003 by visionary barman, history grad and occasional local politician Rohan Evans, the Cellar was initially conceived as a local version of the tiny backstreet haunts of Tokyo and Berlin. Deploying the fruit liqueurs, ciders and spirits from his family business in Coromandel - the esteemed and eccentric Purangi Winery - Evans found a loyal following of local weirdos and adventurous travellers. Initially just one room, with one red light bulb, and bar fittings fashioned from wine barrels, the place was minimalist, poetic and friendly. As tentative steps into hosting live music provided bizarrely successful, the Wine Cellar became a cult. The early 2000’s had seen off many K’Rd boho institutions - Brazil, the Lost Angel, Crawlspace Records - but the Cellar proved there was a second wind to the area.

In due course the Cellar added a back room, and began both Evans sound-engineering and booking as many as six nights a week of shows, hosting virtually every important independent local act of the 2000’s, many internationals and the occasional secret gig by major acts. Despite the small size - 60 to 80 capacity if you’re lucky - the Cellar back rooms (there have been two) boasted reliably straightforward acoustics, a human-scale experience for the performers and audience alike, and as a venue it rarely if ever generated noise complaints (crucial in an era when more and more finicky people were moving into CBD apartments).

Residing in the basement - or should that be dungeon - of the 1920’s St Kevin’s Arcade building, the Wine Cellar bar itself features a jungle of plumbing and electrical services, posters and graffiti, all part of Rohan Evan’s admirable battle against entropy via the medium of improvised furniture. Over the years the place has, shall we say, grappled manfully with cleanliness, but a recent change of landlords and the arrival of other tenants committed to improving the arcade, has seen the whole building sharpen up its act, and the Cellar is always cosy and convivial for casual drinkers, with craft beer, wines, spirits, and of course the Purangi Estate range; the Lemon Gin is recommended! It’s also one of the very few places in Auckland that serves beer in a proper full-size imperial pint glass. To the connoisseur, this is no small beer.

Gritty, unkempt and wilful, the Wine Cellar certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But as home to radical free jazz, experimental performance art, blues, psychedelic music, noise bands, folk songwriters and always a cheerfully bleak chat about political history, it’s certainly the thinking person’s cup of tea - or mug of cider.

Image Credits: The Auckland Psychogeographer